“Tribes on the plains survived by forming alliances, not unlike the
nation-states through history,” begins Tom. “The tipi was very universal
in nature, as were the ways of the Plains Indians’ lives. You’d be hard pressed
at a glance to know whether one or multiple tribes were present in a village
and sometimes something as minor as an entrance flap representing the style
of one tribe as opposed to another was needed to determine it. Tribal Tripartite
is as much about the shared necessities and influences of Plains’ life as it is
color and design.”